Toads and wrackspurts
by Athena Owlet
Summary: It's the start of Neville's fifth year and Luna's fourth year at Hogwarts. They are both excited and worried, about friends, wrackspurts and toads. Hogwarts is changing under Umbridge and the feelings between Luna and Neville aren't the same anymore.
1. Prologue: Flowery knickers

Neville took one last look at his room before he swept up his heavy trunk and headed downstairs. The room wasn't much, and not very personal; but it was his. One wall was covered with sweet wrappers he'd got from his mom. His gran thought it stupid of him to keep them, but he insisted. He had accepted that this was the only thing his mother would ever be able to give him, and therefore he intended to keep all the wrappers 'til his deathday.

She would never be able to give him comfort, knowledge or advice, all because of You-Know-Who's servants.

He sighed as gran called up to him: "Come on now, Neville. Do you want to miss the train? Think of the shame..." the last sentence was muttered, but he heard it well enough.

His trunk banged against the stairs as he dragged it down behind him. It was just as heavy as his heart. Would he have anyone to hang out with this year? Sure, he had Harry, Ron and Hermione, and Ginny too, but they weren't _his_. They hung out with each other and included him, which was nice. But he longed after a friend he could have for himself, one that wouldn't mind hanging out with _just _him. Well, with his luck, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

After stuffing the very last of her amulets into her trunk, Luna closed it. Then she called for her father to levitate it downstairs, she didn't want to break anything.

A look at her triangular clock told her that they were late.

"Hurry up, dad," she cried. "I don't want to miss the train!"

In a rush they were at the station, she was hurrying down the platform when she ran into Neville. Literally.

Her trunk fell of the trolley and popped open. A little too late she realised that she had put her knickers on top. Well, at least they were her best.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" said Neville, who had turned bright pink at the sight of Luna's flowery underwear.

"No, don't be. It was really my fault, I was in a hurry and didn't watch out," Luna smiled at him. It made his stomach tickle in a funny way, but that was probably just because he hadn't had time for breakfast.

Luna gathered up her stuff and closed the trunk again. Then she turned towards a less pink Neville and asked: "Shall we find ourselves a compartment, then?"

Neville nodded and thought to himself that maybe this year wasn't going to be so bad after all.


	2. Chapter 1: Something there

Luna peeked into the little, shabby pub. Not many had arrived yet, but amongst the people there, she saw Neville Longbottom. She smiled happily and hurried inside.

The pub was dirty and smelled of goat, but Luna didn't mind. Actually, she kind of liked the smell. What bothered her, was the constant buzzing that kept ringing in her ears. Frantically, she waved her arms around her.

"Hey, everything all right?" a voice asked. A voice, his voice.

"Yeah, I was just getting the wrackspurts in here to bugger off," she answered in her always dreamy voice.

"A wrackspurt?" he asked, a little unsure. He didn't know if he wanted to know exactly what a wrackspurt was.

"Invisible creatures, that make your brain all goo-goo," she replied.

She sat awkwardly down at Neville's table. People didn't usually speak to her unless they had to. And when someone did, it was almost always to make a rude statement about her personality or clothes. Some called her "Looney" and had a good time laughing of her father's magazine: "The Quibbler". Well, some were at least polite. Although people rarely acted friendly towards her, Luna didn't think of them as cruel people. They just didn't understand her, and that wasn't something they could do anything about.

"Aha," Neville murmured, a little uncomfortable. "So the wrackspurts are here now?"

"Oh, yes. Loads of them. They're fly-" Luna began, before a large crowd of people made their way into the dark pub. The lot were lead by Fred and Gerorge Weasley, who counted them and ordered butterbeer from the grey-haired barman.

Luna drifted of into her thoughts, and Neville moved over to the table where Harry was seated. He had only talked to Luna to be polite, he knew that she was pretty short on friends. To be honest, she is a bit weird, he admitted to himself. Wrackspurts, huh?

Someone started talking, and Luna turned towards the sound. It was Hermione Granger, talking about how they didn't learn anything from Umbridge. The only thing Umbridge has taught us so far, is how to open a book, Luna stated to herself. And once again she flew away, into her thoughts.

A sudden mention of "Lord Voldemort" made the room jump. Luna got pulled down to Earth and flinched a little herself, being brought up with the custom of not mentioning his name. Hermione started to say something, but was interrupted by Zacharias Smith. He wanted her to prove that You-Know-Who was back.

Luna looked over at Harry, she saw the anger well up in his eyes. Again Hermione tried to say something, but Smith cut her of once more. The whole room was full of tension, and Harry made it perfectly clear that he didn't want to talk about Cedric Diggory. Which Luna understood. She had been quite sad when he died, although she didn't know him that well. Cho, another Ravenclaw student in the year over her, had been devastated. Not very surprising, seen that he had been her boyfriend. She cried her eyes out for weeks afterwards, and still did, occasionally.

Luna tilted her head a little to the right and glared at Cho. Cho's eyes were full of tears, but they did not run down her cheeks, she was improving. All wounds healed after some time, if not fully. Luna, of all people, knew that. Her mother had died when she was nine. It had been tragical, both for her and her father. But it was OK now. She knew that her mother had a good life up in heaven, and she had got used to life without her.

Cho seemed to be healing very well, according to the way she looked at Harry. She even complimented him on his effort in the Triwizard Tournament last year.

A smile, that looked more like a grimace to everyone else, played on Luna's lips. And while Fred (or George, she wasn't sure) pulled a long, dangerous-looking instrument out of a Zonko's bags he was holding, she fell into a coma-like state.

"So, now we need to decide where and when we are going to meet," Hermione said, and Luna got interested. Finally. Good to be finished with the cosy little chit-chatting, she thought. Hermione continued to talk about how Fudge and Umbridge thought they were building an army or something. Most of the listeners found this shocking. But Luna thought this entirely sensible and blurted out: "Well, Cornelius Fudge has already got his own army of heliopaths, so that wouldn't be too stupid, would it?"

Following her remark were a lot of confused faces, and she had to explain everybody what a heliopath was.

Neville payed attention to Luna as Zacharias Smith confessed his doubt about Harry and Dumbledore. Her eyes were as wide as gold galleons and her dirty blonde hair swayed as someone opened the door. He found it fascinating how she rarely blinked. She was interesting in an odd kind of way, he didn't know if it was good or bad yet. Probably good, so far at least.

Neville didn't have much experience with girls. He had no girl friends, except for Hermione, but she didn't count. Although he had gone to the Yule Ball last year with Ginny, he didn't really like her in that he got nervous around girls, sweating and stuttering. Like he wasn't pathetic enough as it was. In his year, there were no blokes he could talk to about girls without feeling like a gnome. He had no brothers or male cousins, and he snorted at the thought of bringing it up during dinner at home. His grandmother would choke on her food and check his temperature. Or maybe she would say something like: "Oh, dear boy. You know that no girl will ever fall in love with you unless she's half blind! It was different with your father..." and then it would be the same old story.

Neville was tired of being compared to his father. He knew that no matter what he did, he could not top what his father, and mother, had done. They had sacrificed their sanity in the battle against You-Know-Who and his followers. Sometimes he hated them for doing that. It was a stupid thought, but his life would have been so much easier without two heroes as parents. No-one to be compared to, nothing to live up to. He sighed.

Luna rushed out of the Hog's Head and inhaled the cold autumn air. Suddenly someone bumped into her, she turned around. Neville looked as if he had just been captured by the giant squid. He looked at her with astonishment and started to apologize: "Oh, Luna, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you. Are you all right?"

"Of course I am, it's autumn," she replied like it was an obvious fact. Neville felt stupid, more stupid than he used to. Then he blushed and stressed away, throwing a halfhearted "goodbye" over his shoulder.

Luna stood back, confused and taken by surprise at his reaction. Neville had never seemed to dislike her, so why did he rush of like that?


	3. Chapter 2: Worries

Neville washed his hands and dried them on a towel. He had spent the afternoon helping Professor Sprout with the mandragoras. An afternoon well spent, in his opinion.

He liked working with herbs and plants, it took his mind off everything else. And he had a lot to think about these days. Therefore he had volunteered to help out in the greenhouses every Saturday before lunch. It took his thoughts of things, one thing in particular, actually. And this thing was Luna Lovegood.

At first he had been a bit nervous about Luna. He did not understand why she made him feel so funny. His heart always started to beat faster when he was near her, so he had worried that he had some kind of disease. He had even gone to see Madam Pomfrey.

Neville was that kind of person who always worried about everything, even if it was highly unnecessary to worry about. It could be very tiresome, both for him and the people around him.

Lately he had been worrying about Luna and his feelings for her. Whenever she was around he felt happy. Simply really happy, nothing else. But she could also make him very sad, which was confusing. He knew that she would never want to hurt him, but sometimes she did.

Like the other day when he saw her joking and fooling around with one of the Ravenclaw boys. It did not look like he was interested in her, but Neville's heart stung at the sight of Luna with someone else. He wanted to be the one who made her laugh, but he could not even bring himself to talk to her.

Not that he had not tried. Over the past couple of weeks he had managed to conjure several awkward conversations with Luna that mostly consisted of "uhms" and flushing. Luna was always nice of course, but he still felt like she did not really want to talk to him.

Neville did not have much experience concerning girls. Sure, Ginny had went with him to the Yule Ball last year, but they were just friends. Other than that, he had never been with a girl. He had had a small crush on Susan Bones during his third year, but that was nothing compared to what he now felt for Luna.

He put away the tools he had used and began walking towards the castle. While walking he imagined Luna walking there with him, her hand in his. Smiling, he decided to go look for Luna and ask her if she wanted to have lunch with him in the courtyard. His heart raced and he tried to calm himself. Eating lunch with Luna was nothing to worry about, was it? _Wait a minute_, the worried voice inside his head said, _eating lunch with Luna is _everything _to worry about_. What if he accidentally spilled water on himself, or even worse; what if he spilled something on Luna? What if he got something really disgusting between his teeth and scared her away? His head was filled with "what ifs" as he began climbing the stairs leading up to the main doors.

Just as he was about to take the final step, he looked up and saw Luna walking past. He noticed the way her hair swayed while she walked and therefore failed to notice where he put his feet. This resulted in a fall that sent him tumbling through the front doors in a mess of arms and legs that were too long for him. At that moment some Slytherins walked by and _accidentally_ kicked him in the face. He heard a _crunch _and felt a blinding pain in his nose. Right afterwards he heard running footsteps and he sensed the sweet scent of Luna as she crouched down beside him.

"Holy hippogriff!" she exclaimed. "Are you all right?"

"I dink my dose is broked…" he managed to mumble before he noticed the blood flooding from his nose and passed out.


	4. Chapter 3: The Hospital Wing

As soon as Luna saw Neville stumble through the door, she hurried over with an expression of worry on her face. This was not an expression commonly seen on any Lovegood's face, and neither was the look she got when the Slytherins kicked Neville in the face. Luna was rarely angry at anything or anyone and felt a bit baffled when the rage came over her. She did not understand how people could be so mean, so inhuman. _What was the point?_ she asked herself over and over, finding no reasonable answer. Maybe she could consult one of the suits-of-armour. They might know a bit about war and silly things like that.

When she reached Neville, blood was already oozing from his nose. A few moments later, he noticed and fainted. Luna managed to get hold of professor Flitwick, who was walking by just then.

"Now, what is this mess?" he asked her politely. "Not another Weasley-product, I hope?"

"No, sir. Someone kicked him, sir." Luna answered quickly.

"Well, then, better get him up to Madam Pomfrey, don't we?" he squeaked, and with a flick of his wand, Neville floated in front of them.

Flitwick floated him carefully up the stairs, into the Hospital wing and put him gently down on one of the beds. Then he turned to Luna and said: "I better go back and clean up in the Entrance Hall. Will you be all right on your own, Miss Lovegood?"

"I think so," Luna replied with a faint smile.

"Good," twittered Flitwick and left while guiding a broom in front of him.

By now, Luna had gotten past the initial shock and called for Madam Pomfrey at once. The nurse came rushing out of her office in a whirlwind of red and white robes. She looked refreshed and ready for whatever Luna could possibly have in store for her.

Just then, Neville woke with a start and sat up straight. He looked around with a frightened and confused expression. Then he cried: "Where am I?"

Luna rushed over at once and sat down on the bed. "It's all right, Neville! You're in the Hospital wing."

Madam Pomfrey hurried to the bedside and looked him over. Luna thought he looked horrible. His lower lip was swollen and so was his nose, which was beginning to turn blue. Blood was smeared all over his face and down the front of his white shirt. But even though he was bloody and blue, Luna still thought he looked incredibly good. Before, she had just looked at people and not really considered their looks, but that had not been the case when she met Neville at platform 9 ¾ at the beginning of term. For the first time in her life, she took note of someone's outside as well as their inside. The way his hair fell over his forehead, partly covering one of his deep brown eyes. How his crooked teeth showed when he smiled that insecure yet mischievous smile of his. His arms and legs had grown over the summer, making him a bit clumsy, but also much more masculine. At night she lay in bed wondering how it would feel to have those arms around her waist. To have his rough, deep voice whisper stupid jokes in her ear. One time, she had actually begun laughing out loud at one of her own made-up jokes and gotten some complaints from her sleeping roommates.

Now she looked into those brown eyes with concern etched upon her face.

"How do you feel?" she asked, stroking some hair away from his face so it wouldn't get stuck in the blood. Her fingers tingled when she put her hand in her lap again and Neville's face turned as red as the blood still running from his nose.

"By dose hurts…" he mumbled, looking everywhere but into Luna's marble-shaped eyes.

"Don't worry about that. Noses are my speciality! This will only hurt for a second." Madam Pomfrey said before touching his nose with her wand. The tip of her wand glowed for a second and Luna heard a sharp _crack!_

The nurse turned towards Luna and said: "Now, if you could help Mister Longbottom here clean up a bit, Miss Lovegood? Here is some warm water and a cloth."

Once more, she flicked her wand and a small washbowl with steaming water and a white cloth appeared. Then she turned on her heel and disappeared into her office, leaving Luna and Neville alone.


End file.
